Despite different lives, Â?HoopÂ? players friends

November 26, 2008|By SARA OLKON Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO--ItÂ?s a chilly morning and two old friends are supposed to meet for a game of hoops. The shy, steadier of the pair arrives early. The other, a fun-loving extrovert, arrives almost two hours late.

The tardy one, Arthur Agee, strolls into his buddyÂ?s office with a playful smile and talk of car trouble. William Gates immediately forgives him.

For more than a decade, the pair have been bound by unexpected fame. The two Chicago high school basketball players were featured in the 1994 hit documentary Â?Hoop Dreams.Â? Now in their mid-30s, their contrasting fates may surprise the many people who saw the movie.

Gates, the reserved one, has become an authoritative force who leads a church in ChicagoÂ?s Cabrini area. He is married with four kids. Agee, a spirited charmer, doesnÂ?t have a regular job but is launching a line of Â?Hoop DreamsÂ? apparel. He has five kids by five different women.

Â?You ainÂ?t even Mr. Gates, now itÂ?s Pastor Gates,Â? Agee says as the two men embrace.

Much has changed since filmmakers began chronicling their lives in 1987, when the 14-year-olds saw the NBA as their way out of poverty. Enduring close to three-hour commutes, the boys enrolled at St. Joseph High School in suburban Westchester as freshmen. The private Catholic school had famously launched the career of retired NBA point guard Isiah Thomas, whom both kids had long idolized.

Gates, a more promising player than Agee, blew out his right knee his junior year. A year earlier, his girlfriend, Catherine Mines, gave birth to a baby girl, Alicia. Gates was still able to accept a scholarship from Marquette University in Milwaukee, but the injury continued to dog him.

Agee left St. Joseph during the beginning of his sophomore year when his parents couldnÂ?t meet their share of his tuition. Devastated, Agee transferred to ChicagoÂ?s Marshall High School in West Garfield Park. His team made it to the state finals his senior year.

After graduating from Marshall, Agee enrolled in Mineral Area Junior College in Flat River, Mo., and later transferred to Arkansas State University. He didnÂ?t graduate from college, but Agee played semiprofessional basketball. In 1996, he was offered a spot on the Continental Basketball AssociationÂ?s Connecticut Pride but passed it up because it conflicted with a part in a cable film by Steve James, director of Â?Hoop Dreams.Â? Agee also had an uncredited spot in Spike LeeÂ?s 1998 film Â?He Got Game.Â?

The teenagers knew each other casually before Â?Hoop DreamsÂ? was made, but they grew extremely close over the five years of filming. They even had secret sleepovers at each othersÂ? homes, unbeknownst to the film crew.

Â?We were teenagers Â? we didnÂ?t want them knowing everything that we were doing,Â? Gates says.

They predict their connection will last all their lives. Agee was one of the first people Gates called when his brother Curtis was murdered in 2001; Agee called Gates immediately after his father, Â?BoÂ? Agee, a West Side minister, was slain.

Â?At the end of the day, heÂ?s my guy,Â? Gates says. Â?And I know he feels the same way.Â?

Agee credits Gates for being honest with him, even when itÂ?s about something he doesnÂ?t want to hear.

Still, they sometimes fall out of touch. In recent months, Gates couldnÂ?t reach Agee because his cell phone number had changed.

Â?Hey, stranger, where you been?Â? Gates says after they hugged last month, the day they met to play basketball.

Agee feeds him a sly grin and gives him an extra-large T-shirt, part of his Â?Hoop DreamsÂ? clothing line. The filmmakers granted Agee the rights to use the Â?Hoop DreamsÂ? name. On the T-shirts, Agee added the slogan: Â?Control Your Destiny.Â?

Gates holds up the T-shirt and jokes that his three boys Â? ages 13, 10 and 5 Â? could fit inside it.

Agee leads his old friend outside to his rusty, white 1991 Buick LeSabre. In the back seat, AgeeÂ?s pit bull, Cole, is anxiously pacing. Agee opens up his trunk, which has a stack of T-shirts neatly folded in a laundry basket, and hands Gates a handful of T-shirts in smaller sizes.

Agee lives in Bartlett, a northwest suburb of Chicago, with his girlfriend, Jennifer Genovesi, and their 8-month-old son, Devin. His four other children, Anthony, 16; Ashley, 16; Deja, 12; and Aiysha, 2; each live with their respective mothers. Agee says he pays more than $900 a month in child support and is often broke.

Things were looking more promising after Â?Hoop DreamsÂ? made its debut. Because of the film, Agee was able to move his family out of their Section 8 two-flat into a bungalow. Both men said they earned roughly $150,000.

But neither grew rich.

Agee gave up on basketball in 1997.

In recent years, he has focused on his Arthur Agee Jr. Role Model Foundation, a non-profit that works with underprivileged kids. He also starred in a documentary called Â?Hoop Realities.Â? The film looks at AgeeÂ?s attempts to launch the clothing line, follows a recent senior guard from Marshall and examines the difficulties of reaching the NBA. The film premiered a year ago at the Virginia Film Festival. Agee says the producers are working on getting a distribution deal.

A Â?Hoop DreamsÂ? sequel is not in the works, Peter Gilbert, a producer of the original film, says. But, he adds, Â?Never say never.Â?

Gates never banked on another film. Now a father of four living in ChicagoÂ?s Austin neighborhood, Gates became the first person in his family to graduate from college, earning a communications degree from Marquette in 1999. He worked for three years as a program director of Community Economic Development Association of Cook County and considered law school.

He hit a low point after his brother CurtisÂ? murder on Sept. 10, 2001, and spent much of 2002 unemployed, with the exception of a few handyman jobs.

Â?It was worse than the knee injury and not being able to play,Â? he says of that period. Â?I felt powerless.Â?

The grandson of a pastor, he decided to pursue a more spiritual path. In early 2003, the Moody Church offered him the job leading an evangelical church, Living Faith Community Church in Cabrini-Green. Gates remains there today.

Meanwhile, both men still play hoops for fun. Gates says his eldest son, William Jr., already is a better player than he was at his age.